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Achilles heel of HIV found
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by Mon-Mage | July 17, 2008 at 02:13 pm
468 views | 2 Recommendations | 4 comments
HOUSTON: Scientists in the United States believe they have uncovered the Achilles heel in the armour of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), a development that may be useful in the treatment and prevention of the infection that continues to kill millions around the world.
Researchers led by Sudhir Paul at The University of Texas Medical School, Houston, believe that they have found the weak spot of the virus, a tiny stretch of amino acids numbered 421-433 on gp120, which is now under study as a target for therapeutic intervention.
"Unlike the changeable regions of its envelope, HIV needs at least one region that must remain constant to attach to cells. If this region changes, HIV cannot infect cells," said Paul, who is lead author on a paper linked to this theory in the June issue of the journal Autoimmunity Reviews.
Additional data on the theory are to be presented at the XVII International AIDS Conference from August 3-8 in Mexico City.
The team led by Paul has engineered antibodies with enzymatic activity, also known as abzymes, which can attack the Achilles heel of the virus in a precise way, the Science Daily reported.
It would be really interesting to see more details about what they've truly found at the XVII International AIDS conference. After numerous scientists have touted temporary cures to HIV as the solution to HIV, we might finally get an answer to HIV that is a more permanent cure.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 15:40 on July 17th, 2008
So how long before they find an effective way to apply this? They'll have plenty of volunteers to test it, no doubt.
at 16:03 on July 17th, 2008
I don't think there's any real way to know until they present more details regarding their findings at the upcoming conference.
at 22:20 on July 17th, 2008
Mon-Mage, I like this story. It's good stuff.
at 06:44 on July 18th, 2008
It is interesting to see this story in the nationals (Financial Times etc.) just as the U.S. have dropped trials of an AIDS vaccine -link-. I have to say that, although medical science progressing is superb news, education and dealing with the issue of getting treatment to those in dire need should still be paramount.